Meet the runners who braved the snow for unofficial 2018 Reading Half Marathon

30 before 30, Michael Lord completes one of his challenges. (Image: Josh Pewter)

Dozens of runners braved freezing temperatures and treacherous conditions to complete the route of the Reading Half Marathon after snow forced organisers to cancel the race in 2018.

The bad weather wasn't enough to deter everyone from making it to the start line on Sunday, March 18.

Around 30 runners pulled on their trainers, woolly hats and gloves and turned up at the start in Longwater Drive after Josh Pewter from London and Stuart Payton from Bristol rallied people on social media.

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The pair's NotReadingHalf Twitter account encouraged those who still wanting to take part to join them on the 13.1 mile route around Reading, Berkshire.

They were joined by 15 runners who had travelled from Geneva, to raise money for Launchpad, the Reading charity supporting the homeless.

Runners from Geneva kitted out in their Launchpad shirts. (Image: Josh Pewter)

Unofficial run organiser Josh said: "It may have been freezing cold but some of us still wanted to just get out there and do it, so we used social media to rally those that did.

"Reading Half Marathon did the right thing by cancelling, the weather was treacherous, holding such a big scale event would have been a bad idea.

"But if you're being sensible and looking out for each other, there's no reason you can't go out for jog in the snow.

"Also fair play to the organisers for getting volunteers together to hand out medals, I know a lot of people appreciated that but I didn't get mine in the end, I needed to head back to London to defrost."

Reading Half Marathon 2019

The group bumped into joggers who hadn't seen their posts but wanted to complete the half marathon as badly as they did.

A number of runners joined NotReadingHalf at the two and nine mile marks, with almost 100 people taking part overall.

30 before 30

The snow also wasn't going to get in the way of Michael Lord, who wanted to complete a half marathon as one of 30 tasks or challenges he is trying to complete before turning 30 years old.

He said: "I turn 30 on the last day of May, so I've got two and a bit months to do nine things. It's serious now! Never give up!"

Organiser Stuart Payton at the start line. (Image: Josh Pewter)

One runner, Graham Blackburn, was reluctant to collect a medal without running the route so ended up completing the course on his own in just under 2hrs 30mins.

He said: "It's the accomplishment, so I couldn't pick up the medal if I hadn't done the work, despite all the training.

"I don't use social media much, but my daughter made me aware a lot of people were doing the run anyway.

Graham Blackburn just before he headed out to complete the 13.1 mile route. (Image: UGC)

"My colleague and many others like the NotReadingHalf group did it in the morning, but I found out too late to join them.

"I'm glad I completed the run, but I agree with the decision to cancel the event as the roads treacherous, especially around The Forbury area, people would have slipped in large numbers."

He added: "I think it's unreasonable for people to be asking for their money back, it was an act of God and all the preparation that went in to putting this event on in the first place deserves some recognition."